Bale to net £2.5m for Far East jolly as Madrid star benefits from Welsh World Cup woes

GarethBale, reportedly on £300,000 a week since his record £86million move to Real Madrid, will also be remarkably well rewarded for missing out on the World Cup with Wales.

Bale is the only member of Madrid’s star-studded line-up not going to Brazil, meaning he can take advantage of a £2.5m offer to go on a promotional tour of Asia at the end of the season.

The 24-year-old will be paid that fortune just for spending a week in Indonesia and Singapore appearing at a football festival in Jakarta, a charity event and a coaching clinic.

Lucrative: Gareth Bale will be paid £2.5m to spend a week on Real Madrid's promotional tour of Asia

Missing out: Bale is able to take part in the tour as Wales failed to qualify for World Cup 2014

Edwin Sutiono, director of Indonesian company Dua Kelinci who are sponsoring the visit, said: ‘Bale is a world-class player. He has spare time so he can come here. Hopefully he will motivate young Indonesian footballers.’

Kevin Pietersen’s selection for the Rest of the World side playing MCC at Lord’s on July 5 gives him the platform to destabilise the England camp at the most sensitive time.

The game occurs just four days before the start of England’s Test series against India, when the squad will be focused on moving ahead without him.

Return: Kevin Pietersen will take part in the Lord's bicentenary match between the MCC and a Rest of the World side

The ECB were told MCC wanted the mercurial batsman for the game and raised no objections.

But with former South Africa captain Graeme Smith giving more momentum to the KP-is-innocent bandwagon, the ECB are in danger of losing the high ground unless they reveal all the reasons why he was banished.

Former England rugby captain Mike Tindall, co-owner of Grand National second favourite Monbeg Dude, will be grateful that the race does not start until 4.15pm. Tindall, a player-coach at Gloucester, is training on Saturday morning ahead of Sunday’s Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final against Wasps before heading to Liverpool.

Busy: Mike Tindall faces a race against time to watch Monbeg Dude start at the Grand National

Never has the viewing figure for the Grand National been more important to Channel 4, whose racing coverage since the botched revamp at the start of 2013 has seen hundreds of thousands of armchair watchers switch off.

The first day of the Aintree Festival was no different, with Thursday’s peak of 763,000 massively down on last year’s 960,000.

The Grand National peak of 8.9million was the one positive for C4 in 2013. But if that falls by more than a million, it really will be crisis time.

Key: Channel 4 will be sweating over the viewing figures of this year's Grand National

Meanwhile, the Crabbie’s-sponsored National is promoting responsible drinking. But a Ladies’ Day vox pop on the official racecourse service quoted Kerri, 24 from Liverpool, saying: ‘We’ve been on the booze since 8am and plan to get smashed.’

Frantic Jockey Club chiefs hastily withdrew the off-message bulletin.

Now Farnan’s in dock

The Leeds fiasco goes on and on. Football industry figure Mike Farnan, who leads the Together Leeds consortium that initially opposed Italian Massimo Cellino’s takeover but now wants a joint partnership, is also facing allegations about his suitability to run the club.

Farnan’s opponents claim the former Manchester United and Sunderland executive left the Stadium of Light under a cloud in June 2013 after two years as marketing director.

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Fiasco: Mike Farnan is now facing allegations about his suitability to run Leeds amidst Massimo Cellino's (pictured) failed takeover

The reasons for his departure were never revealed and Sunderland offered no information on Friday, while Farnan was unavailable for comment.

Dylan Hartley has no concerns about his relationship with England hooker rival Tom Youngs following the alleged biting incident in Leicester’s victory over Northampton.

The citing officer took no action. Hartley, an Aintree guest yesterday, said: ‘My reputation makes me a target, but this was all cleared up last week.

‘There are no problems with Tom going forward.’ C4 and Racing UK both interviewed Hartley but chose to avoid the biting issue.

Forgotten: Dylan Hartley (pcitured) insists he has no problem with fellow hooker Tom Youngs after an incident during Leicester¿s victory over Northampton

Sir Alex Ferguson did not pick Michael Owen often during the striker’s three seasons at Old Trafford but the pair have since struck up a firm friendship through their joint passion for horse racing and went to Cheltenham together.

However Sir Alex has yet to send a horse to Owen’s Manor House Stables, though former team-mates Wayne Rooney, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes have done so.